The New Zealand Government is spending about K7 million in assisting Papua New Guinea prepare for the 2018 APEC Summit.

And this week they are training about 30 Foreign Affairs protocol and liaison officers with five more programs right through to October 2018 in time for the Summit in November.

New Zealand is going into elections next month to elect a new Prime Minister and that CEO is attending the APEC Summit in PNG.

So the Government is not only preparing PNG liaison and protocol officers for the best, they are also preparing for their PM’s visit to PNG to be part of the APEC 2018 which PNG is hosting.

New Zealand High Commissioner Sue Mackwell said yesterday it was New Zealand’s pleasure to help PNG.

Former New Zealand High Commissioner to PNG Neils Holm, who was also deputy director APEC took the PNG Foreign Affairs protocol and liaison officers through the training program with Foreign Affairs Secretary Bill Dihm, his deputy Barbara Age, Chief Protocol Morea Veratau and DFAT Protocol Director Barbara Mimino and other important senior staff.

“New Zealand is helping APEC Papua New Guinea around protocol training, which goes on, through until this week and will adapt and change training as we go forward and see what’s needed.

“At this stage we looking at, at least five sessions like this between now and October next year and we also support training for the PNG Royal Constabulary in terms of police officers coming to work alongside AFP and the PNG constabulary, Close Protection Officers (CPO), Water Police, Intelligence, Communication and traffic.

“So we just got the process of those trainers identified and are starting to bring them over to New Zealand we will also have a senior person from the New Zealand Police that will be joining your Joint Security Task Force as a senior national officer.

We also supporting the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) here in Papua New Guinea and we’ve provided funds for the Chief Operating Officer for ABAC (K300,000) over the next 14 months or so.

“Finally we also looking at providing support to Papua New Guinea as has been requested around cyber security, so those are the areas at the moment.

“And also in Defence, we’ve had a long standing relations with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force providing support to the Special Force Officers.

“So all of these things we are working through with Papua New Guinea and responding to requests from PNG for assistance and we are very happy to help,” she said.